This was the view of Kendall and Blair, and of Benton, who refused to participate in the Senate debate. The latter felt that, though “rejection was a bitter medicine, there was health at the bottom of the draught.” He alone among the senatorial friends of the rejected Minister appears to have had the prescience to appreciate the ultimate advantage. To one Senator, rejoicing over the rejection, he turned with triumphant mien: “You have broken a Minister and made a Vice-President.” But the enemies of the Administration and of the victim were jubilant. “It will kill him, sir, kill him dead; he will never kick, sir, never kick,” exclaimed Calhoun in the presence of “Old Bullion.”[394] And there was an immediate reaction. Instead of killing, it made Van Buren. He instantly became a party martyr, and idol. On the evening of the day the news of his rejection reached London, Van Buren appeared at a party at Talleyrand’s, smiling, suave, undisturbed, as though he had scored a triumph. It was probably on that day that he heard from Benton, urging that he hold himself free for the Vice-Presidency. The speeches of Clay, Webster, Hayne, and Clayton were published, the veil of secrecy having been lifted from the executive session for this party purpose, and the effect was wholly different from that expected. It had been the part of Kendall and Blair to see to that. While the Senators were talking, they had been busy with their pens, and when the action was taken the Democratic press furiously denounced the rejection, the rank and file of the party rose _en masse_ to proclaim the victim a martyr, mass meetings were called in New York, Philadelphia, and Albany to arraign the Senate, and the Democratic members of the New York Legislature sent the President a letter of condolence. The Legislature of New Jersey declared that after its favorite son, Senator Dickerson, its choice for Vice-President would be the martyr. And Isaac Hill took the stump in New Hampshire to denounce Webster as disloyal to friendship and as a sniveling hypocrite.[395] But the success of the conspiracy acted upon Clay like the taste of blood on a tiger, and with an insinuative reference to Livingston’s indebtedness to the Government, which he knew had been discharged to the penny, he would have applied the political proscription of the Whigs to the philosopher in the State Department but for the indignant protest of Dallas. Thus the character of the fight to be waged against the Administration was clearly revealed within a month after Clay’s return to public life. IV